HCLM BLOG

In the news last night was the story of two high school youth who ended up stabbing a homeless man to death. They said that it was because one of the boys thought that the homeless man was looking at him and trying to "come on" to him. Whether he was or not we will now never know. What a sad commentary on our society if someone is killed because they looked at another person wrong.

Also last night I was reading an article from the Sanford herald written by my son Jacob, In that article Jacob was speaking about just how the artificial relationships of this society, Facebook, Myspace, etc. can be a hinderance to us developing the real life relationships needed to function well in our society. I wonder if the high school boy had more experience in real life relationships, if he would have been able to relate to the homeless man that he met in a different manner. I am not suggesting that online relationships are bad, but I wonder if they don't maybe impede our ability to form real life relationships?

In our real life relationships our real personality should be obvious to all! Especially as a follower of Christ, we want to be all that our Lord wants us to be. When Christ shines through in all of our relationships His grace is made obvious to those around us. It is said that with an online relationship it is too easy to pretend to be something that we are not. That can also be true of a Christian who lives in this world, they can pretend to be something that they are not. Therefore we strive not to be the perfect Christian living in the world, rather we strive to live our life as a gift from God that is to be enjoyed. To let our love of the lord be obvious to all in all that we do and say. Let's push to learn nothing more than how to live as Children of the heavenly Father in a world that does no know Him.

“Why do I feel the urge to serve, why do I know it’s the right thing to do?” Until this evening I couldn’t put my finger on why. A lot of folks say it's because we are called to build the kingdom of God to to bring it in. But we don’t build or bring the Kingdom...Jesus has and does. We’ve our hands full trying to live in it. Jesus inagurated the Kingdom and invites us to enter in as citizens, born not of parents ascent but by the will of the father through the blood of the king himself. Living under the reign of Jesus involves every big decision we make in our lives and a hundred small decisions every day. The thing is that life in his Kingdom, under his reign is affected by a different ethic than this world. Jesus is not a King like this world has ever seen, and his Kingdom is not like one this world has ever known. Here, the first is the last. The greatest is the servant of all. Here justice is impenetrable and unassailable and left completely to the perogative of the King...unquestioned. As I live, a citizen only (not a builder, in my best days an ambassador) fully submitted to the king, I find myself serving. Not to bring the kingdom but because I’m a citizen of it. It is a small distinction in words but huge in my conception, and experience.

Last night I saw on TV that Off. Virgil Pickelsheimer of the Lake Mary Police Dept. is retiring at the age of 72 after 22 years on the Lake Mary Force. The streets of Lake Mary will be a little safer for speeders from now on. They said that in his career here he had handed out more than 500 DUI tickets. The TV did not mention how many speeding and moving violation tickets he had given but I would bet that the number would be staggering! I say this because Officer Pickelsheimer has given me 8 to 10 tickets in the last 22 years. If you were stopped in Lake Mary the odds were good that you got to know this officer. He is famous for finding the most out of the way spots to set up and watch drivers. You could find him on North Sun Dr. behind the Medplex, on Old Lake Mary Road near the railroad track, on Broadmore half way to SCC, and on the long curve of Country Club where the speed goes down to 30.

While I am aggravated by the hundreds (thousands?) of dollars that his tickets have cost me over the years as I look at it now in this writing I realize that his vidulance has caused me to drive more carefully in the city of Lake Mary. Therefore we say a fond fairwell to Officer Pickelsheimer, but not really since he said that he was going to continue to patrol as a volunteer at least once a week.

So to all of you speeding drivers out there, as the officer used to say, "You drive safe next time you hear!"

On July 10th Betty and I had officially been married for 33 years. On November 27th of this year my oldest will turn 30years old. On November 8th I will turn 55 years old. Each of these items causes me a certain amount of pain, since I am not very happy about the aging process. For instance I am incensed that I will not be able to teach my grandson to slide into second the way I was able to teach my sons, doing it myself!!! Those days are gone. All that aside, my am very happy to have been with Betty Jean Hoyer for all of these 33 years!

She and I met in College and i was fortunate enough to convince her to marry me and I have never been sorry (I can't speak for her on this). As I look back on the years I realize that I would never be the person that I am today if I did not have her in my life, I could never have accheived what I have been able to accheive or accomplish what I have accomplished. In our family I shudder to think what our kids would have turned out like if I had not had Betty to raise them into adults. We were with some of her friends from the Orlando Science Center last week and I realized again just what she has given up to be a part of what we have as a couple! If left on her own she would have gone on to accheive even more, than she has today.

 Perhaps more important that how I feel about the years that we have spent together, I am tremendously excited for the years that lie ahead. I am looking forward to growing old with her, she is the one i want to look at from my rocking chair. What a gift God has given me to have her in my life. I do not thank Him or her nearly enough for all the joy that she brings to me. I love you Betty and can't wait for what the years will bring.